A space to share the creation of my first film, a documentary about the Montagnard people who served as American allies during the Vietnam War

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

What We're Made For - A New Song by Natalie Royal

Services for Katherine R'Com and her cousin Johnny Nay were held last weekend. (Related news story here.) The 10 year old girl was the daughter of Vien Siu, who is featured in Abandoned Allies.

Vien and his family have been to our private screening events, often brought food with them to share with everyone, and gave honest and gentle feedback about how to improve the film. I'm a big fan of their family, and feel so lucky that I've gotten to know them while working on this film.

My heart goes out to the families who suffered such an untimely deaths last week, including the victims in the theatre massacre in Colorado. Losing someone you love is so tough.

That's why I want to share a song by Natalie Royal. When folks see Abandoned Allies, they often ask me about the music. Natalie Royal's incredible voice is the one you'll hear a few times in the film. Big props go to Annie Beth Brown Donahue, the music supervisor for Abandoned Allies, who arranged to have Natalie's music in the film. It's so powerful.Natalie has been working on her full length album, and raised money on Kickstarter. (Her campaign has ended, but you can scope it out here.) As part of her fundraising efforts, she offered to write and record a song for financial backers.

The song What We're Made For was recorded specifically for Sam in Portland, Oregon, but has a special meaning for me today because of the events that transpired last week. The past week has been tough for people suffering tragic, unexpected losses. I find this song especially comforting right now.

Natalie introduces the song and starts singing at 3:24 on her video. She also has a free download of the song available here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

"Some times when we are at our lowest points and when things are the absolute worst, the only thing that makes anything better is another person ... The human race is really not so bad... if we look at the positives that are happening ... we'll realize how wonderful people truly are."